Passengers faced a scramble to get their flight details at London Gatwick Airport this morning after the digital information boards went down.
Staff were forced to write departure details on whiteboards as travellers crowded around them to see which gate they needed to head for.
Gatwick officials said the issues, which began at 8.20am this morning, were due to an ongoing problem with Vodafone, which provides IT for the airport.
Passengers faced a scramble to get their flight details at London Gatwick Airport this morning
A ‘handful’ of people have missed their flights due to the issue, Gatwick officials confirmed
Gatwick staff wrote departure details on whiteboards today after the digital boards went down
A ‘handful’ of people have missed their flights due to the issue, with August being one of the busiest periods of the year for the airport during the summer holidays.
A Canadian passenger, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Humphries, tweeted: ‘Appalling Gatwick Airport, with broken monitors and a tiny whiteboard for announcing gates.
‘Thank goodness I have eagle vision and can read messy writing from a distance. Why not pre-assign gates like Canadian airports? #Laughable #TypicalBritain.’
Another passenger, coastguard worker Robin Blandford, said: ‘Serious whiteboard-based business continuity going on in Gatwick. All flight information screens down.
August is one of the busiest periods of the year for the airport during the summer holidays
Gatwick officials previously said this summer will be its busiest on record
‘Poor chap with a two-way radio trying to keep it up to date with hundreds looking on. #Gatwick #Airport #BusinessContinuity #Crisis #London #Outage.’
And Tamara Salem tweeted: ‘Gatwick Airport: “The systems are down – get the whiteboard out!” Generation Z: “What are whiteboards?” #OldSchool #BackInSchool.’
Passengers also claimed the mobile app was not working, as many took to Twitter to ask Gatwick Airport’s customer services team for their gate information.
The airport apologised for the trouble, with a spokesman saying: ‘Due to an ongoing issue with Vodafone – an IT provider for the airport – our flight information screens are not displaying correctly.
‘Please use the temporary flight boards in the departure lounges or listen for airline flight announcements.
Poor chap with a two-way radio trying to keep it up to date
‘We expect Vodafone to resolve the issue soon and would like to apologise to passengers for any inconvenience.’
Gatwick officials previously said this summer will be its busiest on record, with 8.8million people set to use the airport during the school holidays.